


We Need to Talk

by HaughtBreaker



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Post-Finale, catradora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25675624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaughtBreaker/pseuds/HaughtBreaker
Summary: Starting their next mission, Catra finds the stress of change beginning to compound.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 144





	We Need to Talk

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fic the day the season aired and I got distracted but was finally able to finish it last night. Special thanks to JayBear1701 for making sure the commas were in the right place.

Catra hadn't thought twice about joining Adora when the Princess of Power had suggested one more  _ Best Friend Squad _ mission. They'd already been to space. They had already seen things worse than either could imagine, and they'd survived together, stronger because of it. 

More experienced. 

Braver. 

Bolder. 

So why, Catra wondered not for the first time, was her tail ruffled in anxiety? She sat alone in the dark, curled on the edge of the bay window with her knees hugged to her chest, ears down and brow furrowed as her tail swished sharply back and forth. She gazed out into the stars, a vast freedom with no boundaries, yet still she felt contained, like a feral kitten captured and forced in a small box. 

Not a box. 

A room.

One room on a ship of several. 

There was a slight technological whoosh of the door opening and Catra barely stopped her nails from emerging in defense. She had to remind herself that there wasn't anyone on the ship that was going to hurt her. 

Not Melog who paced uncertainly around the room, cosmic fur raised and a deep maroon in reflection of the turmoil Catra felt.

Not Bow or Glimmer in their weird dance of bashful uncertainty, neither sure of how to exist around each other in their new status of  _ more than _ best friends. 

Not Wrong Hordak or WH as they'd started calling him. He reveled in his new assignment of ship maintenance and rarely interacted with the others unless addressed directly.

And definitely not…

"Hey, Catra." 

The words slipped down Catra's spine, soothing as a soft embrace, and almost instantly, Melog moved to rub against Adora's legs -- long, vigorous strokes of fur against pants that almost threatened to knock Adora over. 

The hand that absently scratched the top of Melog's head might as well have been running through Catra's cropped hair and she twitched her ears before urging Melog to go lay down through their shared bond. 

Adora didn't seem to notice as she stepped up to the window, purposely not stopping soon enough and bumping into Catra just slightly. "Whoops, sorry."

"Watch it, Princess. " Catra sighed as she bumped back softly. There was a silence as Catra sat there, her tail swishing just slightly. It was a moment before the silence was broken.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” 

“Who said something’s bothering me?” Catra felt herself getting defensive. It was a problem she was very much aware of. 

“You did.” Adora pointed at the tail that was thumping against her side, hair on edge. 

Catra huffed as she instantly whipped her tail back around the other way, trying to hide it between the window and herself. “I’m fine.” 

To her credit, Adora didn’t push. “Okay.” She didn’t dig in that ever so annoying way and didn’t press. 

Maybe Catra wanted to be pressed. Her nostrils flared as she hopped down off the window, easily avoiding Adora as she moved to the flat bed, sitting on the edge. It had been strange, after the defeat of Horde Prime. Things had happened so quickly and no one had questioned Catra staying in Adora’s room. After all, it was best to keep the ex-Horde member under the close eye of She Ra. In the past few weeks, she’d found comfort in the familiar, curling up at the foot of Adora’s bed as she had when they were children, neither of them speaking about it. 

Now here they were, with no excuse to share a room, no excuse to stick as close as possible. 

“Well, we’re on our way. Our first stop is going to check in with the Star siblings. You didn’t meet them, but they are  _ so _ awesome.” Adora stepped up to Catra, her hand hesitating before she curled a finger under Catra’s chin, tipping her head up.

Catra didn’t fight the gesture, looking up to see blue eyes watching her intently. For a moment at least, until she pulled away. “What are you doing?” 

“Nothing… just…” Adora leaned down, placing a gentle kiss against Catra’s lips before sitting beside her. There was a soft smile on Adora’s lips but confusion in her eyes. “Now that there aren’t like  _ a million _ people pulling me in all directions, I wanted to, you know, spend some time with you and,” her hand slid down to capture Catra’s hand in her own, watching as the black claws peaked out just a bit before tucking away completely in a rare show of irrefutable trust. “We haven’t talked a lot since everything happened.” 

Catra swallowed audibly. “Yeah, so?” There was something in her telling her not to be too vulnerable. Not to be too weak. “We’re not really the talking type.” 

Adora laughed at that. “What? You love talking.” 

“I do not!” 

“Yes you do,” Adora bumped her shoulder. “You know just how to torment the heck out of me when you want to, just with a few words.” 

“I think you got that wrong,” Catra stood up, feeling the instant chill as she pulled her hand from Adora’s. What was it about her incessant need to challenge Adora every time she said something even the slightest bit daring. “You’re the one that always had to basically beat me to death with your words and speeches.” 

“I’m not trying to give a speech, Catra.” Adora rolled her eyes. “I just want to make sure you’re okay with everything.” She stood up, but didn’t get any closer. Instead, she just crossed her arms over her chest as Catra began to pace back and forth. 

“Of course I’m okay. Do I not look okay?”

Another eye roll and Adora lifted a hand to gesture towards her. "I don't know, Catra. You were fine before but since we left you've been on edge." She blew out a long breath. "I wish you would just…"

“I don’t want my own room,” Catra blurted out in exasperation, cutting Adora off.

Adora froze, her eyebrows hiked high. “What?” 

“Nevermind,” Catra huffed. “Just… get out of my room.” She felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her as she began to turn away only to have a hand capture her arm. 

“That’s what you’re in here sulking about?” Adora had the audacity to smile, her voice slightly teasing. Before Catra could pull her arm away, Adora pulled her closer, capturing her in an embrace that Catra didn’t want to fight. “You should have just said so earlier.”

Catra glowered. She hated that Adora had that stupid, beautiful smirk. She hated the way she felt her animosity draining away as a thumb stroked casually among her spine. Most of all, she hated how much she didn't hate it. 

Instead, Catra purred, pressing closer to the warm body, somehow even warmer than she remembered. "Stay with me?" She whispered the words into the crook of Adora's neck, brushing a soft kiss along the length of flesh she found there. She intentionally pushed aside the memory of the last time she'd said those words, when Adora had been unconscious in her arms. 

"For you? Always," Adora promised.

Catra didn’t want to point out how untrue that was, at least for the past. Did she fully trust Adora to keep that promise going forward? 

Not really. 

But for the moment at least, she nipped the edge of Adora’s jaw, right where a set of faint white scars reminded her of a past fight. 

Adora chuckled. “Come on, Catra. It’s time for food.” 

______

  
  


"What are you thinking about?" 

Catra sighed, contemplating not responding. "I was thinking  _ wouldn't it be great to be sleeping? If only certain blondes would stop asking questions." _

Adora snorted, her hand closing around the tip of Catra’s tail, nearly scaring seven lives out of her. “You’re not very good at hiding your emotions.” She gave a slight tug. “Come up here.” 

Catra sighed in exaggeration as she uncurled from the foot of Adora’s bed, crawling under the blanket to be beside her. Almost instantly, her tail settled around Adora’s waist, her body relaxing into Adora’s longer length.

“Well…” Adora turned slightly, snuggling into the warmth of Catra’s body. “This is like a hundred times better. You should have came up here earlier.” 

Catra inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent that was all Adora. She felt a warmth that seemed to radiate from every inch of their bodies touching and it coursed through her blood, settling in her gut in a burning desire. “I was trying something new called… giving you space.” 

“What?” Adora blinked, craning her neck to look at Catra’s face. “That is really sweet. Completely unnecessary, but sweet.” Her hand resting on Catra’s waist, she ran her fingertip under the edge of her shirt, feeling the soft fur. “I love you, Catra.” 

Catra looked up to find blue eyes watching her closely. She huffed loudly. “I love you, too.” She shifted slightly, pressing her lips to Adora’s. This time, there was no uncertainty, no need to rush off because there was some pressing matter they needed to address. 

That was, until Adora broke off the kiss with a giggle. “I thought you were trying to go to sleep.” 

Catra nodded. “Until you started yanking my tail.” She gently nudged Adora until she was on her back, easily straddling her hips and leaning over her. “That’s a declaration of war.”

Adora rose an eyebrow, her hand coming up to caress the curve of Catra’s jaw. She ran her thumb through the soft tufts of fur just below her ear and Catra couldn’t stop the purr that emerged. “We should talk.” 

“I prefer action.” Catra turned her head, placing a kiss to the center of Adora’s palm. “Don’t we talk enough around everyone else?” She captured Adora’s hand and pinned it to the mattress above Adora’s head. 

“I just, uh,” Adora gasped softly as her other hand was captured and forced to join her other hand above her head. “I’ve just never…” 

Catra paused, her mind going over a ridiculously long list of interpretations for the statement before a light went off. “Never?”

Adora’s cheeks flushed a dark red as she shook her head. 

"No  _ special access _ for the Best Friends Squad?" Catra joked.

“What?” Adora would have sat up if not for Catra pinning her in place. “Of course not. We’re just friends.” 

Catra leaned forward, her nose brushing against Adora’s. “We were just friends, once upon a time.”

“Well, you’re part of the  _ Super  _ Best Friends Squad.” 

Laughing softly, Catra released Adora’s wrists and sat back, still straddling Adora’s thighs. “So, no one, huh?” She felt a nervousness threatening to overwhelm her bravado and swallowed audibly. The nervousness doubled when Adora sat up, her arm around Catra’s waist pulling her closer. 

“Well I’ve been a little busy, leading a rebellion to even find time to go on dates or… you know.” Adora bit her own bottom lip, a slight hesitance in her crystal blue eyes. “So then, have you…”

Catra pursed her lips, contemplating how she would answer. Part of her wanted to lie, but that was the old part of her -- the part that  _ could _ lie to Adora. The past few weeks had revealed that, of all the things that had changed with their developing relationship, she was no longer able to convincingly lie to her. “Well... “

Adora smiled softly, placing a soft kiss to Catra’s jaw. “It’s okay if you have.”

“No, it’s not…” Catra sighed heavily. She felt a wave of embarrassment come over her and she pulled back slightly. “I haven’t.” 

“Really?”

“It’s not that I didn’t try… once.” 

Now Adora’s surprise shifted to amusement. “How do you just...try?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “I panicked, okay?” 

“Well,” Adora’s hands slipped around the bottom edge of Catra’s shirt, her thumbs grazing the soft fur along her side. “Would you panic now?” 

Catra swallowed the urge to purr, shaking her head. “No. I wouldn’t panic now.” Leaning forward, she pressed her forehead to Adora’s, grinning. “I panicked, because it wasn’t you, Idiot.” 

“Me?” Adora had the nerve to blush as she hiccuped a laugh and a snort at the same time. “Shut up.” 

“You shut up,” Catra reached for the fasteners of Adora’s jacket, easily unbuckling it. “Are you going to be the one to panic now?” 

Adora shook her head, swallowing audibly. She allowed her jacket to be undone, Catra pushing it off her shoulders and tossing it to the floor. “I mean… I might panic…” Catra’s fingers stilled before Adora continued, “but not like in a  _ I want you to stop _ kind of way.” She unbuckled Catra’s belt, pushing it to the side. “It will probably be more like a  _ oh boy we’re really doing this  _ and  _ oh no, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing  _ kind of thing. Then it will be like  _ oh god, where do I put my hands _ and...”

“You know, you’re really adorable when you ramble,” Catra cut her off with a shake of her head. “You saved all of Etheria by putting yourself in harms way to defeat Horde Prime, and you’re worried about where to put your hands?” Catra looked down at her own top, easily unzipping it and tossing it to the side. She nearly laughed at the look on Adora’s face, instead grabbing her hands. “You can start here.” She pressed Adora’s hands to her chest, a shudder sliding down her back at the feeling. 

“Okay.” Adora nodded seriously, her eyes flicking back and forth from Catra’s face to where her hands were. “Okay.” She spread her fingers through the soft fur. “Holy shit.” 

Catra laughed, a familiar cackle that Adora had heard both as an ally and an enemy. “If I knew this was a valid way of defeating She Ra, the Princess of Power, I would have tried it a long time ago.” She knew it was a mistake the moment she saw a shift in blue eyes. There was a slight flash and she found herself on her back, her knees on either side of strong hips of the kneeling blonde. She looked up at Adora, who was still herself, but Catra could feel the energy radiating off of her and see a slight glow all around her. “Okay, that is definitely cheating and completely not fair.”

Adora flexed her hands that had grabbed Catra’s ribs to flip her, sliding her fingers through soft fur. She didn’t get any resistance as she slid her hands up the length of both arms and pinned each wrist to the bed, leaning over Catra’s now captured form. “All is fair in love and war.” She brushed the softest of kisses against Catra’s lips. “I believe we were discussing your surrender?”

Catra swallowed audibly, a grin spreading across her face. Any nervousness or anxiety she’d felt before had disappeared. “Name your terms,” she responded before Adora laughed, their lips meeting again for another kiss. 


End file.
